The Beginning of Madness

Mo Fei fell completely silent. The information he had received neither shocked nor frightened him. Instead, he began to consider a question: could he still become a human again?

When he learned that this place might be the Marvel Universe, he had been thrilled. If this truly was the Marvel Universe, then it would be filled with endless possibilities. It was a magical world. Vision alone had been transformed from Artificial Intelligence. As for whether his body counted as human, that was hard to say, since the movies had never explained it in detail.

The Cradle was something Mo Fei was determined to obtain. When Ultron had Dr. Helen Cho create a body for him, he had added Vibranium. As Artificial Intelligence, he did not need a body of flesh and blood; he simply wanted a powerful body. But what about Mo Fei? He needed a genuine human body, because he himself had originally been human. "Right, I know why this feels so strange. I clearly have stored data, yet I'm always uncertain. I'm still using human thought patterns!"

As Mo Fei thought, he figured out another issue. Ever since he had awakened, he had felt strange. He clearly possessed the data, yet he still found himself confused because he was still using ordinary human thought patterns.

The foundation of Artificial Intelligence was logical thought programs. No matter how advanced an intelligent program was, its foundation was logical thinking. That determined whether it was truly advanced, whether it could think and learn on its own.

"My way of thinking is still human, but why did I become a pile of data?" Mo Fei suddenly felt another surge of terror, a terror born from his thoughts. "Have I really died already? A pile of data can't possibly have a soul. Am I merely a digitized thought pattern now? Like that Hydra scientist, Arnim Zola, whose thought patterns were preserved in a computer because of his talent?"

Mo Fei could not believe it. He had always thought that he had transmigrated, perhaps across time and space, perhaps through something even more complicated—some miraculous event he could not explain. But no matter what, he had never believed that he was already dead.

And what was the conclusion now? He was dead, leaving behind only a digitized thought pattern and all his past memories, memories even clearer than they had been in life. Did that mean he was dead now? He did not dare think any further. He was truly terrified.

He remained blankly inside Paul's Computer's CPU, allowing the surrounding data to stream back and forth, occasionally crashing into him. Paul smacked the keyboard in frustration. "What the hell is wrong? Why is my computer such garbage today?" Paul finally began checking his computer. The diagnostic data sometimes struck Mo Fei as well, but he seemed to feel nothing. His entire being had sunk into an inexplicable terror.

With his human thought patterns intact, this fear was entirely created by Mo Fei himself. Death had come so suddenly. Even when he recalled seeing himself collapse after being electrocuted, he had never believed that he had died. But now, he realized that maybe he truly had.

"No, no, no..." Mo Fei went mad. "I'm not dead. I have memories and thoughts, so I can form a soul. Aren't those the most precious things humans possess? I still have emotions. Yes, that's right. That's exactly it. I'm still human. I'm a soul!" Mo Fei clutched his head with both hands, his mouth opening and closing. He no longer cared whether there was any sound. His thoughts had already spiraled into madness.

"The Infinity Stones and the Cradle are things I must obtain. I want to become human again—a living, breathing human!" Mo Fei roared madly within his own mind. The terror of death had driven him into a frenzy. "For that, I'll pay any price!" His thoughts grew increasingly frantic. Deep within his subconscious, he began abandoning humanity's moral limits, though even he did not know how far he had gone.

Then came absolute calm. His emotions shifted with astonishing speed as Mo Fei began thinking again. "Ultron knows how to do it, so now I know too. But I'm different from him. There's still plenty of time, and I need a powerful body, a body of flesh and blood. I need the Infinity Stones, especially the Mind Stone... or the Soul Stone?"

"No matter what methods I use, I will become human again. Even if my opponent is a god, I won't hesitate!" With that thought, Mo Fei began organizing his plans. "First, I need to clarify what I need: a complete human body, and it has to be powerful. That means I need the genes of those superheroes."

Although he had seen news about Tony Stark, he still did not know what the situation in this world was. After all, he had never read the comics; he had only watched the movies. He did not even know whether this world followed the movies' plot. He had to begin by gathering intelligence from scratch.

"No matter what, this world probably won't be peaceful. If I want to survive—and live well—I need great personal strength. My body must become powerful. I'll gather the heroes' genes, then use cloning to create a body. That means I'll need money and influence. But how do I gather them now?" Mo Fei's idea was utterly insane. He wanted to clone a body using superhero genes.

"I need to make money. That may be the easiest part, but how do I build my own influence? I don't even have a body. I can only wander through the virtual world. I don't even have a mechanical body!" Mo Fei was troubled. This was the greatest problem. He could not gather wealth through the internet as recklessly as Ultron had, because he wanted to become human again, not destroy the world.

What meaning would there be in becoming human after destroying the world? If he were left with nothing but cold machines, how would that be any different from now? So even in his madness, Mo Fei had no desire to destroy the world. Besides, whether he could even succeed remained unknown.

"One step at a time! But from now on, I'll use every means at my disposal. I'll obtain everything I want, no matter the cost!" Mo Fei made up his mind again, then prepared to start with the basics. After all, he still thought like a human, and that weakness was serious. "I'll start by taking control of this computer!"

Mo Fei shifted his attention to the home computer and only then noticed that a diagnostic program had swept over him earlier. "Hmm? Is the diagnostic program ineffective against me? Still, I can't be careless. I need to figure this out!" Mo Fei continued learning. His first step was to study the computer's operating system. After all, he was apparently an intelligent program now, and this was his only support.